100 STATE BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



tive half bushel thus selected. How shall the dirt and the part of the 

 beet not removed by proper topping be removed, and how shall the 

 juice to be tested for sugar be taken? 



Dr. H. W. \Viley said in substance as follows: 



I do not think that injustice has arisen from the use of the methods 

 that have been mentioned, except possibly from carelessness and in- 

 competency. We find in all kinds of chemical work a great difficulty 

 in securing correct samples. The chemists resort to an amount of work 

 which the layman would consider unreasonable to thoroughly mix 

 the material to be analj'zed, so that the small sample taken shall 

 fairly' represent the bulk of the material under investigation. It is 

 impracticable to shovel the beets over and over, nor do I think it 

 necessary. While a given sample taken somewhat at random from a 

 given load may not fairly represent that load, either in per cent of tare 

 or content of sugar, where many loads are delivered from the same 

 field, the average of the samples so taken will differ but little from the 

 average of the loads delivered. In fact, two beets which look alike 

 and which grew on the same row under identical conditions may differ 

 1 or 2 per cent in the sugar they contain. To get the average quality of 

 a given row we should have to analyze a large number of beets. This 

 is what is done at the factor}^ under the system now universally 

 adopted. 



Ilesort is had to yarious means to properly sample an individual 

 beet. Perhaps the most common method is to take the beets one by 

 one after they have been cleaned and properly t()])ped, quarter them 

 and pulp one-quarter of each beet in the half bushel. The juice from 

 the pulp so obtained may fairly be supposed to represent the average 

 juice of the whole load. 



By marc is usually' meant the content of fibre and other insoluble ma- 

 terial in the beets. The factor fairly universally adopted for marc 

 is five, that is, it is assumed that five per cent of the beet is marc and 

 ninety-five juice. The mean factor in use all over the world for reducing 

 per cent of sugar in juice to per cent of sugar in beet is .95. The per 

 cent of sugar in the juice is multiplied by .95 to determine the per cent 

 of sugar in the beet. 



In answer to the question whether beets would ever contain 14 per 

 cent of marc, Dr. Wiley stated that so high a percentage of marc would 

 indicate that either the analysis was not properly made or the beets 

 were better adapted to fire wood than the sugar factory. Any payments 

 made on a basis of that kind would be. a great injustice to the farmers. 



The Chemical Division of the Department of Agriculture at Washing- 

 ton has analyzed a great many thousand samples of beets. The results 

 of these analyses confirm the well-nigh universal experience of Ger- 

 many and the older beet growing sections of this country that the 

 normal amount of marc is 5 per cent, rather under it than over it. 

 It is true that where beets have lain a long time in the heat or 

 where by reason of warm, wet weather in the fall a second growth 

 is started, there may be a slight increase in the per cent of marc. It 

 is also true that drouth may make an abnormal beet, but the con- 

 ditions would have to be unusual indeed where the per cent of marc 

 would reach 7, and 8 per cent w^ould be a figure so high as to make one 



